‘There is growing demand for a caste-based census to be conducted by the Centre to precisely understand the economic well-being of the marginalised communities’
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When the Centre did not extend the deadline of June 30, 2024 to freeze administrative boundaries for the purpose of the Census, hopes were raised that the decennial Census operations, initially scheduled to begin in 2020 as a prelude to Census 2021, would at least commence in October 2024. It usually takes about three months after the boundaries are set, to make massive preparations for the field work. However, these expectations were belied when the Budget 2024-25 recently allocated ₹1,309.46 crore for the Census, a significant reduction from 2021-22 when ₹3,768 crore was allocated for the decadal exercise, thereby indicating that it may not be carried out even after the considerable delay. The next Census, therefore, continues to be on hold with the government yet to announce the new schedule.
An absolute necessity
Conducting the Census on a priority basis is a must, as in the absence of a Census after 2011, a majority of our country’s population is unable to access several schemes, benefits and services. Moreover, the implementation of the women’s Reservation Act passed in the Parliament last year, reserving 33% of seats in Parliament and Assemblies for women, awaits the conduct of the Census.
It is imperative that sufficient provisions are made in the 2025-26 Census Budget so that the 2021 Census that has been postponed could be held at the earliest, in 2026, on completion of the first phase in 2025 that would include house listing and housing census and updating of the National Population Register (NPR). The preliminary arrangements for the Census, such as preparing updated maps and lists of administrative areas, pre-testing draft Census questionnaires, training of officers and core staff, who would train the large number of field staff in collecting the Census data digitally, i.e., on mobile app, planning the field work, logistics, budgeting have all been taking place in the Census Directorates in States and Union Territories for the past few years in anticipation of putting through a Census.
My visit to the Census Directorate of Tamil Nadu in Chennai and talks with the officials there have revealed that they are ready to undertake the task once the new Census date is fixed. All that is required is quick refresher training for them. The amount of ₹1,309.46 crore allocated in the 2024-25 budget could be utilised by the Census department to carry out several preliminary activities such as firming up of the enumeration areas, questionnaire finalisation, refresher training of the core staff in the proposed digital census, and tabulation plan.
The Constitution (Eighty fourth Amendment) Act of 2001 was specifically made so as not to have delimitation of the constituencies till the first Census conducted after 2026. In the event of the Centre thinking in terms of having the Census in 2027 and utilising the population figures obtained from it for delimitation purposes, then the Census reference date should be announced soon, with the new deadline for the freezing of the boundaries of the administrative units by the State governments and Union Territory administration.
Clarifications
To create a comprehensive database of usual residents in the country, the NPR with details of persons usually residing in villages and towns and other rural and urban areas was first prepared in 2010 during the Houselisting and Housing Census phase of Census 2011. It was updated in 2015 incorporating changes due to birth, death and migration. This process was put through under the Citizenship Act, 1955. The NPR would be updated again during the House listing and Housing Census Operations (Phase 1) of the forthcoming Census.
The draft form of the NPR for the next Census has questions such as “mother tongue, place of birth of father and mother and last place of residence” — which were not in the NPR of 2011 Census prepared in 2010. The inclusion of the new questions has been opposed by some States and citizen groups as the NPR is the first step toward compilation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), according to the Citizenship Rules 2003.The Centre has however clarified that NPR data will not be used in the preparation of the NRC.
The Centre has to make a decision whether to retain or not the contentious questions in the NPR format to be updated in the first phase of the upcoming Census.
On caste information
There is growing demand for a caste-based census to be conducted by the Centre to precisely understand the economic well-being of the marginalised communities. In an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court of India on September 23, 2021, the Union Government had stated that a caste census (except that for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes done traditionally) was unfeasible, and “administratively difficult and cumbersome”.
The Centre has to take a call now on whether or not to collect caste information in the next Census.
N. Rama Rao is Retired Deputy Registrar General (Census and Tabulation), and former United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Census Adviser for Cambodia and some other countries
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